Atlantis Emerges
A decisive battle set in motion upon the emergence of the Atlantean Monarchy from the depths of the ocean, its outcome decided the future relationship between the Atlanteans and the Industrial Guild. The Industrial Fleet Factories have their downsides, and waste products are the most obvious of these. The Industrial Dumpfleet was an operation ordered to ship the waste of most South European countries and industrial waste to the northern part of Latin America's border, to a recycling facility in Panama. At least, that was what was going into the official records. In reality, the fleet was planning to simply dump all the waste into the Atlantic at some point, and immediately return with some smug story about leaks and subs. Upon entering the Atlantic ocean, the ships made their way to the middle of nowhere, using the waste they were carrying as fuel to substitute for the more expensive gas or diesel. The fleet then proceeded to prepare the ships for the extensive dumping operation. However, the fleet's sonars suddenly blacked out, refusing to show even their own ships on them. It was obvious that something strange was going on. First Look at the Surface With the surfacing of the Atlantean city-domes being a hastily-made decision, the Atlanteans weren't really prepared for visitors since they were scrambling to lock down everything before the surfacing began. By the time Atlantean sonars picked up the Industrial ships during the surfacing, it was too late to properly scramble all forces. By the time they broke the water's surface, only the 15th and 19th Militia squads were ready for combat, and the Royal Navy itself was just starting to prepare itself for real combat. The Atlanteans were woefully inexperienced in surface combat, although they did have vehicles designed for use on the surface and inside the city-domes. Needless to say, the Atlanteans weren't impressed to find the new visitors dumping waste into the ocean they considered so sacred. The Magara City-Dome, still undergoing repairs from the earlier attack by the purple robots, immediately went into full battle mode, activating its remaining operational cannons. The Duchess was immediately informed of the situation, and assumed command while the Drei Stern members scrambled for their Enigmas to get in the field. The only other battlegroup with combat strength deemed enough for the battle was the 2nd Naval Battlegroup, which was immediately summoned for battle although it took time for all the members to arrive. In the meantime, the Militia would play defense to keep the defilers from reaching the City-Domes while Magara shelled them from a distance with its heavy armament. The stage was set for the first ever confrontation between the Atlanteans and the surface dwellers. The Future is Set As the city-domes emerged from the water, many crewman immediately dissolved into an understandable panic. The veteran crew aboard the Container Constrainer "Carrier of Hawtworth" however, remained calm and immediately send word to their captain's grandfather in law, the Industrial leader, Reinbert the Second. Reinbert initially was most displeased upon receiving a transmission just before dinnertime, but understood the importance at once, taking over command and quickly establishing a chain of command. Whoever these people where, they had seen the Ships dumping the waste, and they had to be silenced for the good of The Guild and the Mediterranean Syndicate. Wiring up immediate command lines and gathering backup forces, the preparations for battle were completed within seconds and the first attack order transcieved. The Industry was ready for battle. The First Shots As soon as the order was relayed, the Liquid Cargoes began loading their waste into their barrels and trained their catapults at the city-domes, waiting for the firing signal. Meanwhile, at the Atlantean Grendan City-Dome, Shocktrooper Linguini looked at his officer in command, waiting for orders, when he saw his superiors face slide smoothly from shock to horror as a 20 ton container sailed towards them. Moments later, the main control center for Grendan's defensive cannons was turned into rubble by a giant explosion. Command of the cannons was instantly rerouted to the backup control center embedded deep inside the City-Dome, which was undermanned. However, they were alert enough to quickly set the unmanned turrets on auto while they focused on dealing with the Container Constrainers. Unfortunately, these were out of range for the main cannons, prompting the gunners to change focus to the containers being launched into the air - and they did a pretty good job of shooting them down. However, the turrets set on auto simply did not have the ability to follow the fast-moving containers. Moments later, the metres-thick Permafrost dome of the city-domes began to buckle and shatter under the insane damage caused by the explosives-packed containers slamming into them. After that, the Liquid Cargoes began to do their job. Launching their barrels through the cracks in the Permafrost dome, the Liquid Cargoes tried to get as many shots at the fragile interior of the domes as possible, resulting in heavy civilian casualties as the barrels of toxic pollution rained down on the city inside. Civilian buildings were showered with waste, statues drowned in mock mud and important infrastructure destroyed. People on the streets drowned in waste, or suffocated from the heavily toxic fumes coming from the muck. Pretty soon, entire blocks began turning a dark shade of greenish-brown. The civilian death toll was only mitigated by a hasty evacuation, using the Militia's vehicles and loading as many civilians on or in them as possible. Senior citizens and people under the age of 17 were given priority, as those in between were in the Militia. Within an hour after the attack began, all remaining citizens had been evacuated to the Randgriz City-Dome, and the only occupants of Grendan left were the Militia, the 2nd Naval Battlegroup and various other support personnel. At the same time, the Magara City-Dome, receiving signals from Grendan's backup turret control center that the defilers were out of range, decided to unveil the new ALIC Howitzers for defense. The dome opened up in some places to allow 10 massive cannon barrels to emerge from inside. All other remaining defenses also came online as a precaution, although Magara was well out of range of the Industrial fleet. As power flooded into the ALIC Howitzer's barrel coils, the first few rounds were loaded into the barrels. Firing solutions were quickly calculated by the able-minded Atlantean gunners and the weapons fired. Counterattack As the fleet saw the massive cannons emerging from inside the Magara City-Dome and light up, many ships initially tried to defy orders and retreat. However, the order soon came in, and most ships managed to retreat to a safe distance before the cannons fired, marginating the losses from the massive Permafrost cluster shells. Even the slower ships managed to get towed away out of range. The fleet skirted the estimated firing range of the howitzers, which they somehow got correct, in order to lure the Atlanteans out. It was an obvious maneuver, and the Atlanteans didn't really buy the move. At least for a few minutes. By then, the entire 2nd Naval Battlegroup and the Royal Navy was ready to scramble - some of the units were even already in position. Without any warning whatsoever, several Blitz Raider Submarines emerged beneath the Industrial fleet, having used the cover of the city-domes' Sonar Disruptors to approach the fleet undetected. Even more Coral and Blitz submarines surfaced all around the Industrial fleet, with 2 of the 2nd's Tidebringers appearing as well. Striking at the oversized ships, the Atlanteans sought to cause as much damage as possible in these few moments of panic and confusion, when several Blitzes suddenly began blowing up, revealing trails of torpedoes coming from 10 undersized subs. These appeared to be the first of the reinforcements sent by the Industrial Guild, as a few seconds later, a huge ship approached the Atlantean subs, harpooned one, and began towing it into its insides, recycling the ship into raw chunks of metal while the crew had no chance to escape their new coffin. At the same time, the Grendan City-Dome opened its airlocks to allow the Mariner Battle Tanks and Waverider Assault Tanks of the 2nd Naval Battlegroup out. Leading the tank charge was the Royal Navy's ceremonial versions of the tanks which were also the elite vehicles that carried the latest upgrades. Using their superior speed to their advantage, the tanks sped ahead of the combined main body of the two Atlantean fleets consisting of Poseidon Destroyers, Trident Battleships, Otodus Frigates and Glacier Shield Cruisers to assist the stricken submarines. The 15th and 19th Militia squads also chipped in with their vehicles following behind, loaded with all the men they could carry. While the charge was underway, the Drei Stern had reached their Enigmas in the Magara City-Dome, although only one was manned enough to take to the seas - the Edelweiss. Although launching preparations would still take time to complete, the Duchess was confident that the fleet on the water would be able to hold back the desecrators until the Edelweiss could launch - not that she was expecting that the massive ship would be needed anyway. Still, it was always a good idea to have a backup plan. As the Waveriders closed in on the Industrial fleet, they activated their AWS systems and sailed high into the air on tidal waves, overriding the limiters preventing their usage against naval targets. The first (very literal) wave of Waveriders rammed into the sides of the nearest Industrial ships in their reach, some with enough combined force to knock the ships over on their sides and capsize them. The Waveriders following behind quickly went for the smaller ships, which they stood a better chance against, while the Mariners closed into cannon range in artillery mode and started attacking the bigger ships to try and distract them from the main body of the Atlantean fleet. Unfortunatly, the Guild had (generally) expected seeing such a maneuver, and had prepared for such a assault, using Trawlers to blast away at the light ships, crumbling most of the Waveriders and even knocking several unfortunate airborne Waveriders off their waves into the water, taking them out of the battle for a little while as the Mariners quickly began to fall under the fire of a Container Constrainer backed by 5 Liquid Cargoes, rendering them unable to retaliate as they were dodging falling containers while still allowing the main portion of the Industrial Navy to target the Atlantean fleet, although the hail of containers mostly struck the more heavily armoured Glaciers, who shrugged the attacks off with minor damage or simply blasted the containers with their Sonic Cannons to detonate them prematurely. The large capsized ships were quickly restored using the Ro-Ro's support platforms, altough picking up the crew and restoring the ships back to working order proved time-consuming. Altough the Industrial fleet managed to avoid large losses in the wave (only losing 2 subs and a Liquid cargo), the next wave would prove far more damaging if it actually reached, prompting the Hawtworth's captain to quickly approve an emergency order pertaining to the restored Container Costrainer Pride of Brickton, which had lost its fighting capability due to a catapult defect when the ship was overturned by Atlantean Waveriders. As the Atlantean army closed the gap between the two fleets, the Brickton moved into an intercept postition, its deck vacant of its usual deadly container ammo, but still in a good enough condition to move. The Atlanteans supposed logically that with the ammo gone, the Brickton was intended to act as a shield for the Industrial navy, trying to lure the main body of the Atlantean fleet into wasting time on the Brickton while the Industrial navy had more time to pile artillery fire on them and restore some of their ships. In response to this move, the Atlanteans surged around the Brickton, ignoring the large ship and setting course towards the enemy, failing (by chance) to notice the Brickton's swimming captain inflating his lifejacket while the Atlanteans rushed past him. As soon as the main bulk of the Atlantean forces were located in the vicinity of the Brickton the captain used his radio to contact the ship, prompting the onboard receiver to spark an electrical wire trailed around the insides of the ship, detonating all onboard explosives, wich were mainly located in the bulky inside. The explosion lacked some of the force it would have if the ship was fully loaded, but was still sufficient to deal heavy damage to the Atlantean forces in the vicinity. With the main task force almost out of the game, the Atlanteans were running out of options. Either the Edelweiss had to be launched, or they risked losing the entire 2nd Naval Battlegroup and Royal Navy. The Duchess chose the former option. That done, one of the Magara City-Dome's purpose-made massive airlocks opened and the equally massive hyper dreadnought sailed out of port. In the meantime, more Atlantean submarines emerged to harass the Industrial fleet, using the Sonar Disruptors to their fullest by diving to dodge attacks and popping up elsewhere - more often than none behind an offending ship. Instead of attempting to destroy the ships, they were now attempting to stop them from moving by attacking their propulsion systems. Enigma Carrier Retribution Gotta Go! Aftermath ﻿ Category:Battles